SUMMER PLAY LAB:
THE LAST DAY OF DOROTHY LILLIAN PHELPS

BY Patricia Van Tassel

Dorothy Lillian Phelps has enjoyed many lives through time and space.  Her experiences have shaped her view of the world, which she imparts to those invited to share her last hour.  In these brief moments, she welcomes the audience and draws them in from strangers to trusted loved ones while she reflects back on her lives, observances, and opinions in an intimate exploration of this universal moment.  With humor, magic, and heart-rending imagery, Miss Phelps encourages us to journey with her, and ultimately to hope that the ending will be different.   She seems ready for her final departure.  But is she really as ready as she thinks?  She leaves us with a softly empty spot, and a gift-the time to question what we might say and do if we knew today was our last day. 

About the Artists

Patricia/PC Van Tassel is an independent artist, writer, and performer, peace-monger, environmentalist, feminist, and vegetarian- with a sense of humor. 

Her stage credits include off-Broadway production tours of Finnegan’s Farewell; and performances at the Dramatist’s Guild and Treehouse Theater in NYC, as well as numerous regional performances including the one-woman shows, Shirley Valentine; The Belle of Amherst; Shame the Devil! and the world premiere of Sandra Asher’s Walking Toward America, directed by Amie Brockway.  Van Tassel was commissioned by Cooperstown’s Fenimore Art Museum and Farmer’s Museum to write and develop premiere character tours of Dorothea Lange and the Susan Fenimore Cooper Garden Tour.  She wrote The Last Day of Dorothy Lillian Phelps which received its first public reading at The Open Eye Theater in Margaretville, NY.  The Emmy award winning late Gene Lasko was her acting coach.   

A member of ASCAP, Van Tassel’s albums include White Coat Consequences (2022) and Hope and Fear (2017).  Her music draws from a variety of genres and is primarily a protest response to political, social, and economic injustices in our world.  She collaborates with professors Julie Licata of the Capital University, Columbus, Ohio, and Andris Balins of SUNY Oneonta.  

Van Tassel is a graduate of Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY.  Her paintings and drawings have been accepted in numerous National and Regional Juried shows and private collections. Her illustrations have been published in scientific books and papers.  

Patricia worked in the human services field for 28 years and is proud to have been instrumental in developing respectful methods for supporting people with differing abilities.

She now lives in the northern Catskill mountains, and she is thrilled to be again performing in Ancram where she grew up and where her parents still live.